I was young when my mom was diagnosed with Diabetes, type I. Our family still lived in Santa Rosa, so it would have to have been before 3rd grade. The details are fuzzy, but on that day, I had to go directly home from school, and my brother and my dad and I went to the hospital to see my mom. The thing I remember most is seeing the helicopter land, the memories of that are more vivid than the hospital itself. I was always interested in planes and flying and things mechanical, and seeing one in flight was amazing.
But my mind then and now was focusing on what it was interested in, rather than the task at hand. We joined my mom at her bedside, where she look exhausted. When my parents told me that my mom had diabetes, I didn't really understand what it meant. It meant she had a bad pancreas; what does the pancreas do? Her blood sugar had been over 600, when normally it should be around 90-110. I didn't even have any horror stories of diabetes to conjure up, but there are plenty: amputation, blindness, irritation and depression. On that day, I had none of those things, just a mom in a hospital bed and a helicopter outside.
After she came home, we began to learn about the disease. She had type I or juvenile diabetes - the kind that usually starts at birth. Her pancreas is not producing insulin, which regulates sugar. So when she eats a meal, the sugar from that meal gets into her blood stream and stays there. My dad described what was happening to the red blood cells as if they were M&Ms - the cells would get coated with a rigid candy shell of sugar, and these normally flexible cells become rigid, tearing arteries, causing the aforementioned blindness and amputation. Luckily, those things happen when diabetes is untreated, and my mom was and is taking good care of her diabetes. I learned what I could, and did what I thought was right, ate healthier, sought out exercise, but mainly didn't worry about it. My mom's life was different now, she had to check her blood sugar regularly, she had to take insulin shots after meals, and eventually started wearing an insulin pump, which everyone thought was a pager (back in the day, you see). My life wasn't affected, just another thing to prepare for.
Some time later, after we had moved to Milpitas but still before I reached high school, my dad came down with Diabetes type II. Considering type I hadn't affected me earlier, I had very little experience with type II. This is the late-onset version of the disease, and people develop it in their 40's. Insulin is still affected - the body does not respond correctly to insulin, but it can be alleviated by diet and exercise. Oral medication and shots of insulin may be necessary as it progresses, and it is something to manage for the duration of a lifetime. I don't think my dad coming down with the disease was as alarming as when my mom had, I was in some sense desensitized to it, but I knew enough about genetics to know that my chances of getting diabetes had roughly doubled.
Without a doubt, the strongest memory I have of diabetes is this: One day when I was in high school, my mom had been feeling sick. she had been sick all day, and was having trouble getting her sugar in control. We ate dinner together as a family, and everything seemed fine, but my mom seemed a little out of it, but nothing particularly unusual. Everyone was still talking and I headed upstairs to retrieve something. As I reached the top of the stairs, I heard my mom shout, "Lyle!" and a large crash. I raced down the stairs and into the kitchen to see her on floor, my brother and dad attending to her. They gave her a Glucagon shot and she recovered in a few minutes. I was not much more than an active observer, but I was secretly proud that she had called for me in her time of need. Her shout was a wake up call to me, that diabetes is real and not just a name or a blood test or a shot of insulin. There is still much about it that we don't know, and may never know in our lifetime.
These experiences and seeing the effect of obesity shaped my psyche to be aware of food and health. The cause for diabetes is not known, but obese children are developing type II, which should not be happening. I myself carried extra weight as a child and to this day consider myself heavy even when others call me skinny. I can feel the fat on my body, and know that I have taken better care of myself than others, but I could still do better. Inside of me is a dull rage at a food system that preys on peoples wants and wallets by telling them what they like is good for them. I get upset when I go into a worldwide chains serving bad food that is incredibly unhealthy at high volumes. Most of all I get upset at myself for being weak and doing what is easy when I could do what's right. The answers are right in front of us. Vending machines tout racks of sugar and 10 different kinds of sugar water, and nobody cares. Desserts are ok in small amounts, rewards are OK if they are occasional and in proportion to exertion.
Nutritionally void foods are cheaper than nutrient dense ones. Profits will continue to be made at the expense of health, ignorance, and laziness. I gain hope knowing that taste is subjective. taste is the product of the entire experience around eating; the sensory characteristics associated with it make some small portion of that. You will work harder to appreciate and like a food if all your friends like it, if it's in an expensive restaurant, or you think it's healthy. Humans will naturally like salt, sweet, and fat, that will never change. But I get bored if there is too much of one thing, and saltiness and sweetness are overused to the point of ridiculousness. These things are necessary and fine in moderation, but they have been exploited for the benefit of profit, and I'm not going to put it in my body.
Exercise is the most important thing you can do, whatever you eat. It's natural. I try to move around 10 minutes of every hour, every day for the rest of my life. I can sit for 3 hours, but I'd better be active for 30 too, just to keep things moving. I spent the weekend walking around San Francisco, and I feel great, I have more energy than if I hadn't done it at all.
But even with everything I do, I am not perfect, and I don't claim to be. My mom tested my blood sugar today and it was at 161 - outside of the range of a healthy individual. This set off alarm bells and floored me. I tested it again 2 hours later and it was down to 110, but I will be having myself examined for diabetes today.
I wonder who I'll call for when the time comes.
Photo from Flickr - retuta
The best coffee you'll ever taste - malt+oats waiting to become beer.
Waiting patiently for the grains to reach 170 F - hot to flow, but not leach out bitter tannins.
It was hard to seal this 2L growler, so I covered the seal with saran wrap.
